Friday, August 29, 2014

Important Considerations In Fibre Optic Cable Installation

By Deanne Shepard


Fibre optic cable consists of bundles of extremely pure glass threads that is used to transmit data modulated onto beam of light waves. The cable can be easily damaged if it is improperly handled or installed. Special care is therefore required during fibre optic cable installation to ensure reliable operation.

The process of installing the wires in different types of environments adhere to certain procedures that one must adopt to ensure not only better handling, efficient operation and placement, but also proper maintenance in future. These guidelines should be carefully followed to the letter. Make sure to get the right advise on which one to have in case you are in the city of Vancouver, BC.

The first thing you need to do is conduct a thorough site survey prior to optic fibre placement. This tries to find out if prevailing conditions on the site require some attention. Probable risks such as high level of temperatures or difficulty in handling machinery should be noted and necessary plans undertaken. Moreover, regulations relating to constructions should be considered. In case of queries regarding the same, they should be addressed by the highest authority.

A comprehensive design before diving in to deployment is then done. This involves establishing criteria for deployment, with regards to the communication paths required, evaluating total hardware requirements, lengths of cable and finally coming up with a breakdown list of hardware components required and specific places they will be used.

Devise a fibre optic pulling technique. This should communicate the considerations identified while conducting site study by the deployment team. This includes the logistics of cable let-off/pulling equipment, the location of intermediate access points, splice locations and the specific responsibilities of each member of the deployment team.

Right guidelines should be adhered to. Due to sensitivity of it to moisture, its end needs to be covered always in either end cap or heavy tape. Attending to its indentations must be a norm during a pull since extra or difficult pulls, back feeding or center-pull techniques may be used.

Ensure that the optic fibres minimum bend radius is never surpassed. During cable placement, it is important that it is not bent to either increase or decrease radius than its normal radius value. After it has been installed, and the pulling tension removed, the fibre may only be bent to the normal radius. The shape of fibre optic cable can be distorted at will to suit your needs as long as there is no violation of the constraints of minimum bend radius.

Maximum Recommended Load should never be surpassed during any stage of cable deployment. Each wire has a specific strength rating, hence upon placement completion the outstanding tension on the cable should always be less than this value.

Always ensure you place an extra wire at strategic points for better operation. Though, its a good exercise to leave that extra one at either the beginning or end of the wire run.

Lastly, document your installation guidelines and steps in simple to revise but organized manner. This will help to ensure that the wire plant is installed correctly and that future trouble shooting and upgrading will be simplified.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment